Pregnancy After Miscarriage or Infant Loss: What You Can Expect

From joy and excite­ment to anx­i­ety and every­thing in between, preg­nan­cy comes with an over­whelm­ing — and some­times con­flict­ing — range of emotions. 

And when you are preg­nant or try­ing to get preg­nant after a mis­car­riage, still­birth (infant loss after 20 weeks ges­ta­tion), or sud­den infant death syn­drome (SIDS), these emo­tions can be sig­nif­i­cant­ly heightened. 

If you have had a preg­nan­cy in the past that result­ed in mis­car­riage or infan­cy loss, get­ting preg­nant might feel a lit­tle dif­fer­ent this time. 

Every woman has her own unique expe­ri­ences with con­cep­tion and preg­nan­cy, so it’s hard to know exact­ly what to expect. How­ev­er, there are some things that you may be able to antic­i­pate as you go through this next pregnancy. 

Once your body has recov­ered, the ​“right” time is when­ev­er you feel ready. 

After a mis­car­riage, it’s typ­i­cal­ly rec­om­mend­ed that you don’t have sex­u­al inter­course for 2 weeks in order to pre­vent infec­tion. It is pos­si­ble to ovu­late and get preg­nant after those 2 weeks. How­ev­er, many providers encour­age wait­ing a few months for your uterus to ful­ly recov­er and for your endometri­um (lin­ing of the uterus) to become strong again before trying. 

It is sim­i­lar for women who have had a still­birth. Recent inter­na­tion­al research has shown that it is safe to get preg­nant again with­in 12 months. 

Some cou­ples choose to try again after mis­car­riage or infan­cy loss as soon as pos­si­ble, while oth­ers wait because they are not emo­tion­al­ly ready yet. 

You can get preg­nant and give birth to a healthy baby after a mis­car­riage or infant loss.

Pre­vi­ous mis­car­riages slight­ly increase your risk of hav­ing one in the future. How­ev­er, hav­ing one — or even more — mis­car­riages in the past does not guar­an­tee that you will mis­car­ry again. In fact, at least 85% of women who have expe­ri­enced one mis­car­riage are able to have a healthy, suc­cess­ful preg­nan­cy in the future. Even after two or three mis­car­riages, about 75% of women still have suc­cess­ful pregnancies. 

Addi­tion­al­ly, research has shown that about 1% of women will have more than one mis­car­riage, and few­er than 5% will have two con­sec­u­tive miscarriages. 

If you had a still­birth, you do have a greater risk of hav­ing anoth­er one than women who have not had them in the past. Also, if you had a child with SIDS, the chance of SIDS in future chil­dren is high­er. But as with repeat­ed mis­car­riages, it’s far from guar­an­teed and the increase in risk is still low. The major­i­ty of women who get preg­nant after a still­birth or a child with SIDS go on to deliv­er a healthy baby. 

A lit­tle test­ing can go a long way in help­ing you have a healthy preg­nan­cy in the future. 

Women who have had repeat­ed mis­car­riages often go on to get preg­nant again and have healthy preg­nan­cies. In order to increase your like­li­hood of a suc­cess­ful preg­nan­cy after mul­ti­ple mis­car­riages, your provider may rec­om­mend some tests to deter­mine the under­ly­ing cause of your mis­car­riages before you try to con­ceive again. These tests may include: 

• Blood tests to check for prob­lems with your immune sys­tem or hormones 
• Chro­mo­so­mal tests to see if the mis­car­riages could be caused by genet­ic factors 
• Imag­ing tests, like ultra­sounds or mag­net­ic res­o­nance imag­ing (MRI) to look for struc­tur­al prob­lems in your uterus 

In some cas­es, you may be able to get treat­ment so that you can increase your chance for a healthy preg­nan­cy in the future. 

If the tests don’t deter­mine a cause, or you can’t get treat­ed, that doesn’t mean it’s time to lose hope — women who have had repeat­ed mis­car­riages often go on to get preg­nant again and have healthy pregnancies. 

If you have had a mis­car­riage or still­birth, and are preg­nant or try­ing to get preg­nant, make an appoint­ment with a Duly Health and Care obste­tri­cian-gyne­col­o­gist. 

You may be described as ​“high risk” — but don’t let that scare you. 

Even though a pre­vi­ous loss doesn’t great­ly raise your risk of anoth­er one, your preg­nan­cy will prob­a­bly be con­sid­ered high risk. 

High risk doesn’t nec­es­sar­i­ly mean that your provider thinks you are like­ly to mis­car­ry. It just means you might get a lit­tle extra atten­tion and care. 

This could mean more fre­quent and ear­li­er ultra­sounds, extra office vis­its, or some addi­tion­al test­ing like fetal heart rate mon­i­tor­ing. How­ev­er, in many cas­es, you won’t need any dif­fer­ent or spe­cial care — it will be just like any oth­er pregnancy. 

It’s per­fect­ly nat­ur­al — and per­fect­ly okay — to have a lit­tle more anxiety. 

Many women have anx­i­ety dur­ing preg­nan­cy, regard­less of whether they have had infant loss in the past. If you have had a mis­car­riage or loss before, you may have even more anx­i­ety. This is both nor­mal and under­stand­able. And while it might not go away com­plete­ly, there are ways to cope and at least slight­ly ease your anxiety. 

If you are feel­ing over­whelmed by anx­i­ety, talk to your provider right away. It may be ben­e­fi­cial to work with a men­tal health spe­cial­ist, like a ther­a­pist or psychiatrist. 

If you are preg­nant or try­ing to get preg­nant, and expe­ri­enc­ing anx­i­ety, make an appoint­ment with a Duly Health and Care behav­ioral health spe­cial­ist. 

Whether you are expe­ri­enc­ing anx­i­ety, have ques­tions about con­ceiv­ing again, or are con­cerned about a future preg­nan­cy, you don’t need to nav­i­gate preg­nan­cy after mis­car­riage or infant loss by your­self. Your OBG­YN is always ready to work with you on devel­op­ing a plan that meets your indi­vid­ual needs and help­ing you and your baby stay healthy through­out your pregnancy.